Why Abortion Is Antithetical to Women's Empowerment

[Chris]

Why Abortion Is Antithetical to Women's Empowerment offers a woman's view on feminism and abortion.

...actress Michelle Williams proclaimed in her Golden Globes acceptance speech that she would not have been able to win without “employing a woman’s right to choose.” The media widely lauded her public abortion declaration as a flexing of “Girl Power,” yet it seems distinctly un-empowering to conclude women need to depend on abortion. As if women are too weak or incapable to succeed without it.

Contrast Williams’ view of Girl Power with authentically empowering messages of three women who are icons of the left. Notwithstanding their own pro-choice beliefs, these women recognize and celebrate Mom Power...[Nancy Pelosi... Ruth Bader Ginsburg...]

...And the cost of abortion dependence is indeed tragic, both in terms of babies lost and its effect on mothers. Even some abortion advocates concede this. In Hillary Clinton’s words, “We can all recognize that abortion in many ways represents a sad, even tragic choice to many, many women.”...

In the political quest for equality, a contentious and litigious new debate has begun over the timeworn Equal Rights Amendment....

...The first feminist suffragists proposed an equal rights amendment, but would disavow today’s ERA because they saw abortion as trampling on the rights of the unborn and degrading to women. These celebrated first-wave feminists from Mary Wollstonecraft to Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton recognized that abortion was, in the words of their movement’s leader, Alice Paul, “the ultimate exploitation of women.” Victoria Woodhull, the first woman to run for president (in 1872), declared with her sister and fellow feminist Tennessee Claflin that “pregnancy is not a disease, but a beautiful office of nature.”

The vision of women’s equality promoted by Roe v. Wade, Michelle Williams, and today’s ERA is far too narrow. It assumes women need to be more like men. But women bear children, and that gift is not a deficiency; humanity’s very existence depends on our life-giving capacity. Women ought to be valued as they are, and Mom Power embraced. In a culture of true equality and authentic female flourishing, women would not be told to choose between their children and their success.

[Mini Me]

I see your point! But since you Rethugs empowered abortion as a major WEDGE ISSUE, women have no other choice but to fight for it!

Abortion should have never been made a political issue in the first place, and I never see any evidence it has actually helped Rethuglicans!

It is a personal decision that should be made with her doctor, preist, or clergyman and is not for politicians to decide or, men for that matter.

[Peter1469]

I see your point! But since you Rethugs empowered abortion as a major WEDGE ISSUE, women have no other choice but to fight for it!

Abortion should have never been made a political issue in the first place, and I never see any evidence it has actually helped Rethuglicans!

It is a personal decision that should be made with her doctor, preist, or clergyman and is not for politicians to decide or, men for that matter.

What do you tell people who believe abortion is murder?

Get over it?

[Chris]

I see your point! But since you Rethugs empowered abortion as a major WEDGE ISSUE, women have no other choice but to fight for it!

Abortion should have never been made a political issue in the first place, and I never see any evidence it has actually helped Rethuglicans!

It is a personal decision that should be made with her doctor, preist, or clergyman and is not for politicians to decide or, men for that matter.

So basically you're saying Republicans control women.

But I do agree that abortion should be a social issue and not a political one--been saying that since the 90s.

No, it's more than a personal decision, as it always involves another living human being, if not others.

[skepticalmike]

So basically you're saying Republicans control women.

But I do agree that abortion should be a social issue and not a political one--been saying that since the 90s.

No, it's more than a personal decision, as it always involves another living human being, if not others.

Is it fair to call a fetus aborted during the first trimester a living "human being"? I don't think so.

Is it fair to call an abortion performed during the first trimester murder? I don't think so.

88% of all abortions are first trimester abortions. The typical fetus at 13 weeks of development is 2.9 inches long and weighs 0.8 ounces. It is about the size of a lemon. Is this a human being?

A potential human being is not the same thing as a human being and I find it difficult to understand how any rational person can be opposed to legalized first trimester abortions.

Regarding the OP, I think that the right to an abortion empowers women and without this right they obviously would have less freedom.

The only argument against abortion that I know of is based on religion so it intrigues me when an atheist takes an anti-abortion stand.

[Peter1469]

Is it fair to call a fetus aborted during the first trimester a living "human being"? I don't think so.

Is it fair to call an abortion performed during the first trimester murder? I don't think so.

88% of all abortions are first trimester abortions. The typical fetus at 13 weeks of development is 2.9 inches long and weighs 0.8 ounces. It is about the size of a lemon. Is this a human being?

A potential human being is not the same thing as a human being and I find it difficult to understand how any rational person can be opposed to legalized first trimester abortions.

Regarding the OP, I think that the right to an abortion empowers women and without this right they obviously would have less freedom.

The only argument against abortion that I know of is based on religion so it intrigues me when an atheist takes an anti-abortion stand.

A fetus's heartbeat begins soon after fertilization and is visible from the sixth week of pregnancy.

WTF is a fetus? A book-end?

[Chris]

Is it fair to call a fetus aborted during the first trimester a living "human being"? I don't think so.

Is it fair to call an abortion performed during the first trimester murder? I don't think so.

88% of all abortions are first trimester abortions. The typical fetus at 13 weeks of development is 2.9 inches long and weighs 0.8 ounces. It is about the size of a lemon. Is this a human being?

A potential human being is not the same thing as a human being and I find it difficult to understand how any rational person can be opposed to legalized first trimester abortions.

Regarding the OP, I think that the right to an abortion empowers women and without this right they obviously would have less freedom.

The only argument against abortion that I know of is based on religion so it intrigues me when an atheist takes an anti-abortion stand.

Is it fair to call a fetus aborted during the first trimester a living "human being"? I don't think so.

No idea what you mean by fair but scientifically, biologically, medically, it is a living human being from conception.

88% of all abortions are first trimester abortions. The typical fetus at 13 weeks of development is 2.9 inches long and weighs 0.8 ounces. It is about the size of a lemon. Is this a human being?

Yes, scientifically, biologically, medically, it is.

A potential human being is not the same thing as a human being and I find it difficult to understand how any rational person can be opposed to legalized first trimester abortions.

Agree, but from conception on it is, scientifically, biologically, medically, a living human being.

Regarding the OP, I think that the right to an abortion empowers women and without this right they obviously would have less freedom.

Indeed, freedom from responsibility for choices made. One that was invented by the court.

The only argument against abortion that I know of is based on religion so it intrigues me when an atheist takes an anti-abortion stand.

One based on science, biology and medical science.

[Private Pickle]

What do you tell people who believe abortion is murder?

Get over it?

Refer to 410 U.S. 113 which proves them wrong. Don’t like it? Change from within.

[skepticalmike]

WTF is a fetus? A book-end?

A human being gradually evolves from a fertilized egg. A human fertilized egg or embryo is not very different from any other mammalian fertilized egg or embryo except for the

genetic instruction set. So, I don't understand how a human fertilized egg, embryo, or 13 week old fetus can be called a human being. I can understand how someone who is a

Christian or a Muslim might think that there exists a soul within an embryo or fetus or that destroying a 13 week fetus is similar to murder but I know of no rational reason to believe this.

The fact that a heart beat can be detected very early during development doesn't mean anything to me. A heart is just a pump. It is the development of the nervous system, particularly

the cerebral cortex, that makes us human.

[Chris]

A human being gradually evolves from a fertilized egg. A human fertilized egg or embryo is not very different from any other mammalian fertilized egg or embryo except for the

genetic instruction set. So, I don't understand how a human fertilized egg, embryo, or 13 week old fetus can be called a human being. I can understand how someone who is a

Christian or a Muslim might think that there exists a soul within an embryo or fetus or that destroying a 13 week fetus is similar to murder but I know of no rational reason to believe this.

The fact that a heart beat can be detected very early during development doesn't mean anything to me. A heart is just a pump. It is the development of the nervous system, particularly

the cerebral cortex, that makes us human.

Human beings do not evolve from a fertilized egg. Total misunderstanding of evolution!

They devlop...as human beings....not a cow or elephant or spider--human being.